Effects of mindfulness-based interventions on cardiovascular risk factors: An umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Reviews have shown that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) were effective in improving cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs), but the results were contradictory. This umbrella review aimed to summarize and grade the existing reviews on CVRFs associated with MBIs. The protocol of this umbrella review had been registered in PROSPERO (CRD42022356812). PubMed, Web of science, Embase, The Cochrane Library, Scopus, Medline, PsycINFO and CINAHL were searched from database inception to 20 July 2022. The quality of evidence was assessed through GRADE. Twenty-seven reviews with 14,923 participants were included. Overall, 45% of reviews had low heterogeneity (I2 < 25%). For the quality of evidence, 31% were rated very low, 42% were rated low, 17% were rated moderate and 10% were rated high. MBIs significantly improved systolic blood pressure [SMD -5.53 mmHg (95% CI -7.81, −3.25)], diastolic blood pressure [SMD -2.13 mmHg (95% CI -2.97, −1.30)], smoking [Cohen's d 0.42 (95% CI 0.20, 0.64)], glycosylated hemoglobin [MD 0.01 (95% CI -0.43, −0.07)], binge eating behavior [SMD -6.49 (95% CI -10.80, −2.18)], depression [SMD -0.72 (95% CI -1.23, −0.21)] and stress [SMD -0.67 (95% CI -1.00, −0.34)]. In conclusion, this umbrella review provided evidence for the role of MBIs in the improvement of CVRFs.